Stretching

The works of Jovan Matić initially draw attention with their communicability. Bright colors arranged in colorful wholes almost automatically cheer up the observer. On a visual level, until the critical apparatus is activated, we think that the works are charming, irresistible and sweet. However, we are very quickly convinced that we have been deceived in some way. The works show the skinned animal skins, their heads in trophies, parts of animal bodies dismembered, processed, exposed - in a word - abused. The seductive variety of colors, compositional thoughtfulness and fine processing of the material draw our attention from the object of presentation to the way of presentation, to the game of art. In this way, the killed animals become aesthetic objects. And the awareness of that arouses conflicting feelings in us as an audience. The guilty pleasure of enjoying the “beautiful corpse” puts us in a situation to think of ourselves as individuals and society as a generator of value systems. We have agreed to the commodity nature of animal life, but it still surprises us when art points it out to us. Jovan Matić, by aestheticizing the products of brutal culture, ironically criticizes the whole spectrum of procedures in which this culture manifests itself - from killing for fun or the beauty of usable material to the entire food industry based on animal products.

By choosing ceramics as a material and the process of fine shaping, these works indicate the vulnerability of animals in today’s society, and then the fragility of the social moral vertical. That is why the works of Jovan Matić can be interpreted as a kind of engagement - although he retains the art object as the final product by association with the commodity character of the object. By possessing this work as a kind of “trophy”, we daily become aware of our own hypocrisy or think of unresolved social problems. The legacy of postmodern art and pop art can be seen in that witty charm that makes his works irresistible - the artist plays with harsh themes but manages be likeable. This irritates us just because it reminds us that we are weak on beauty even when it talks about murder or implies it within the case of a good piece of skin.